Amidst a fresh steady increase in cases of  Coronavirus pandemic globally and the new outbreak of monkeypox, a new type of animal-derived Henipavirus has been detected in China.

The new virus called Langya Henipavirus (LayV) has infected 35 people in eastern China’s Henan and Shandong provinces, according to official media reports.

In December 2018, a 53-year-old woman showed up at a hospital in China with flu-like symptoms. She was infected with a henipavirus, a class that includes some dangerous pathogens like Nipah virus, which has a fatality rate of 40% to 75%.

But the virus infecting the patient was genetically distinct from the other henipaviruses scientists had seen before. It came from a novel pathogen now known as Langya virus.

Scientists detected 34 more Langya cases across two eastern Chinese provinces through 2021, according to findings  published last week by a research team in China, Singapore and Australia. None of the patients died.

Because of that, scientists aren’t yet alarmed. There’s also no sign of human-to-human transmission; the patients who were studied didn’t seem to spread the virus to close contacts, nor did they have histories of common exposures. So Langya appears to be causing infrequent, sporadic infections, and it is most likely passed from animals to people.

Still, other henipaviruses that spread from animals to humans can cause severe outcomes. Hendra virus, which can lead to respiratory illness or brain inflammation, has a fatality rate 57%. Nipah virus produces similar symptoms.